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2018 Trends: Products You May Want to Start Selling

Whether you are determined to become a full time entrepreneur or simply want to turn your passion into a profitable part-time gig, we will outline some important steps to finding the best products for you to sell online in 2018. This guide is designed to help you if you are starting a completely new ecommerce store or if you are expanding on an already existing business.

What Should You Sell?

Here at Volusion, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs are using our platform to sell products online, which gives us an opportunity to spot trends and popular products. We pulled some data and we found the following product categories are on the rise:

Leggings

These form-fitting garments are mostly popular among women and have been on a constant uptrend over the last 5 - 10 years. They were popularized for working out and fitness activities primarily but are nowadays they are widely accepted as common casual wear.

Watches for Men or Women

Drones

Drones have been on an uptrend for the last few years and for good reason: they can be used to capture amazing aerial photos or ultra smooth videos. Drones appeal to a wide range of demographics from professionals to hobbyists.

Try Dropshipping

Some products that are trending this year may be conducive to drop shipping. You don't always have to have a personally-created product to sell: you can put together a strategic website and just dropship items! Here are some goods that you may want to experiment with drop shipping:

Bamboo Toothbrushes

Every part of this toothbrush is plant based. It’s 100% biodegradable and very eco-friendly. Popular for its sustainable concept and unique style, these brushes are just as good as any plastic toothbrush.

Spycam Phone charger block

This little gadget has a very small camera secretly placed inside. It can automatically record and save video when motion is detected. Compared to standard home security cameras this product is very affordable. Coming in at an average cost of around $40.00 from most retailers, you will make significant profit margins because the wholesale price can be as low as $7.00 per unit. Plus, it still functions as a standard USB wall charger which gives it even more value.

Use Google Trends

But we’re not the only experts in what you should sell. You can become an expert yourself by using free tools like Google Trends. This is the go-to tool for investigating search volumes and finding specific search trends. With Google Trends, you can look back all the way to 2004 and see patterns over time. You will be able to see if a product has a peak months that spike up at the same time every year, or if it is on an overall uptrend. I recommend using the time range of “Past 5 years” or the “2004 - present” because that will give you a big picture view of the growth. Searching just one month or one year may not provide enough data to be able to spot a growth trend.
To help you get started, we created this video that shows you how to pull your own Google Trends reports.

Pick a Product You Can Market

As you consider what you should sell, I want to touch on marketing. When deciding what to sell or what to add to your store, always consider how you will get the word out about it. Do you know the target market? Do you have any influencers in mind that may be willing to promote your products?

For existing stores: is the product something that can be used as an upsell item to your existing customers? For example, if you sell phone cases you can increase your average order price by pushing phone chargers after someone adds a case to their cart.

Pick a Product You Are Passionate About

Most importantly, choose products that you are truly interested in or passionate about. The reason for this is because if you are working with products you are personally interested in, you are more likely to understand the target market and reach your goals over the long term.

For example, I created a store that sells maps. I love topographical maps and have a high quality printer, so I can print topographical maps of any location. On my site NomadMaps, customers input a location of their choosing, pay through the site and receive their map in the mail. To generate sales, I posted about the product in targeted Facebook groups I knew had potential buyers.

Start Selling

In general, focus on products that solve a need or that you enjoy using. Get started sooner rather than later, and make adjustments as you go. Remember that perfection is the enemy of progress. For most people, the biggest hurdle is just getting started.

Get into a product or category that you are passionate about, because it will take time and hard work to make your store a success. So you want to make sure it’s something you find interesting or enjoy so that you will continue to be excited about even a few years down the road.

Keep these questions in the back of your mind:

How will I market this product?

Am I passionate about this type of product?

Set up your site with Volusion and start selling in the same day, just like I did with NomadMaps. If you have questions or need help please leave a comment or start a chat with our ecommerce team.